Dare to Dance The Maxwell Series #4
Author: S.B. Alexander
Reading Level: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Released: September 13th 2016
Publisher: Raven Wing Publishing
This story will grab your heart and never let go! Based on true events.
Hoping to sign with one of the biggest boxing promoters in the country, Kross Maxwell has to maintain a near perfect record. He can’t afford to lose any more bouts. But his head isn’t in the ring. Instead, he can’t seem to shake his past that’s been beating on his mind. To get back in the game, he goes in search of the girl he walked away from--the one girl who's always owned his heart.
Twenty-year-old, Ruby Lewis, is angry and frustrated with the way her life turned out. She dreamed of becoming a ballerina, but instead of performing for the rich and famous, she’s swinging her fists at girls twice her size in filthy, underground fights. She’d give anything to sleep in a bed, rather than the cold dark streets of Boston. Begging for her next meal, she often thinks of the friends she once had, the nice home she lived in, and the only boy to ever steal her heart. But Kross Maxwell wouldn’t want her now--not with dirty fingernails, ragged clothes and oily hair. But when she runs into him, the concrete wall she’s erected around herself threatens to crumble, and she can’t let that happen--if she wants to survive and get back the only thing that's ever mattered to her.
Excerpt
After a few more minutes of chatting with Coach Scott, I made my way out, texting Kody and told him it was time to go. When I got to my truck, Kody was waiting for me with a shit-eating grin on his face.
I pressed the key fob, and two beeps sounded. “I take it you found Ms. Sharp.”
“I gave her my number,” Kody said as he climbed in. “My image of her was spot on. She’s curvy, stacked, and sexy as hell.”
I choked as I slid behind the wheel and started the engine. “Maybe I should be hanging out with you more often.” I could get into dating a woman who didn’t want to sink her claws into me, like the girl I was dating seemed to be doing. Penelope wanted my nuts in her hand at every turn. The sex was great, but I was building my career and didn’t have the time or the interest in a steady relationship. I’d already lost one fight because my thoughts were on a girl.
I wheeled out of the parking lot.
“You get plenty of attention at your fights,” Kody said. “Besides, Penelope isn’t doing it for you?”
“I’m not ready to settle down with the picket fence, wife, and kids.” I wanted someone who didn’t complain about a broken nail or whine about having to watch a football game.
“I feel you, Bro.” He fiddled with the radio, tuning into a country station before he sat back. “Wait. The highway is the other way.”
“I have to do something first.” Since I was in the area, maybe I could catch Ruby at home, or at least get her number from her parents. Not to mention, I needed to get her out of my head, especially with an upcoming fight. I couldn’t lose another one. Not with a signing deal with Gail Freeman looming.
Orange and red colored leaves floated to the ground along the tree-lined street. Fall was in high gear. Before long the branches would be bare and covered in snow.
“Care to share?” Kody asked.
After I’d told Kelton my little secret months ago, I tossed it aside. I didn’t see a need to blast the news that I’d almost gotten Ruby pregnant to Kade or Kody. But every time I saw Chloe, who was now almost nine months pregnant, I thought of Ruby.
I glanced from left to right, looking for a yellow house among the variety of two-story colonial homes that dotted the street. “Don’t freak. Two weeks before we moved back to Ashford, Ruby told me she thought she was pregnant.” I counted to three.
Kody lowered the volume of the radio on my second count. On three, he said, “What the fuck! You’re just telling me this now.”
“Chill. I didn’t see a need to bring up the subject. But since you’re with me, you should know just in case she bolts out of her house and attacks me.” I braked at a stop sign. “And she wasn’t pregnant. It was a false alarm.”
“God, Kross. That’s good news. So why do I get the feeling you’re not happy? Did you want her to be pregnant?”
“Fuck no.” I wasn’t happy because I might come face-to-face with the woman I’d left hanging. A woman who’d called me several times sounding frantic, and whose calls I’d ignored. A woman who probably wanted my balls between a nutcracker.
Family was everything to me. I wanted my own one day, but at sixteen, no way. Even now at twenty years old, I was still too young to start a family. “But I was a dick. I didn’t return her repeated calls after we moved back home.” I gave my truck some gas.
“Come on, man. We were sixteen. How were you supposed to act? You were scared.”
Maybe I was scared, but I was also confused. Too much had changed—my sister Karen’s death, Mom moving into a mental health facility, moving from Texas to Massachusetts. Then no sooner had we gotten used to a new school in Ashford before we were plucked from it and forced into Greenridge Academy. Ruby had been my escape, and I’d used her. At least looking back on the situation, that was how I felt now.
“So, why the apology?”
“We were friends, and I let her down.” Truth be told, she’d said she loved me. My response to her had been, “No, you don’t. You think you do, but the feelings we shared won’t last.” It had been wrong of me to say that. I’d learned from Kelton recently that young love could stand the test of time.
“Did you love her?” Kody asked.
“I don’t know. I was so confused. All I could think about when she told me she loved me were Mom’s words to Kelton: ‘It’s infatuation. You don’t love Lizzie.’”
Kody chuckled. “But that didn’t stop Kelton now, did it?”
“Kelton proved all of us wrong.” His childhood sweetheart had shown up in Boston several months ago, and now Lizzie and Kelton were madly in love and living together. Not that I was here to confess my love to Ruby, although I was curious how I would react to seeing her again. She had always made me feel lightheaded in a good way.
Kody scratched his head. “I sense you’re not telling me everything. Do you think if you see her again, she might stir up old feelings?”
I pressed on the gas pedal. “What? No. But every time I see Chloe, I’m reminded of how much of a dick I was to Ruby. She kept calling me after we left the academy. The messages she left sounded like she needed my help. I should’ve at least responded to her, but the pregnancy scare and her telling me she loved me kind of freaked me out. I really just want to apologize.”
I pressed the key fob, and two beeps sounded. “I take it you found Ms. Sharp.”
“I gave her my number,” Kody said as he climbed in. “My image of her was spot on. She’s curvy, stacked, and sexy as hell.”
I choked as I slid behind the wheel and started the engine. “Maybe I should be hanging out with you more often.” I could get into dating a woman who didn’t want to sink her claws into me, like the girl I was dating seemed to be doing. Penelope wanted my nuts in her hand at every turn. The sex was great, but I was building my career and didn’t have the time or the interest in a steady relationship. I’d already lost one fight because my thoughts were on a girl.
I wheeled out of the parking lot.
“You get plenty of attention at your fights,” Kody said. “Besides, Penelope isn’t doing it for you?”
“I’m not ready to settle down with the picket fence, wife, and kids.” I wanted someone who didn’t complain about a broken nail or whine about having to watch a football game.
“I feel you, Bro.” He fiddled with the radio, tuning into a country station before he sat back. “Wait. The highway is the other way.”
“I have to do something first.” Since I was in the area, maybe I could catch Ruby at home, or at least get her number from her parents. Not to mention, I needed to get her out of my head, especially with an upcoming fight. I couldn’t lose another one. Not with a signing deal with Gail Freeman looming.
Orange and red colored leaves floated to the ground along the tree-lined street. Fall was in high gear. Before long the branches would be bare and covered in snow.
“Care to share?” Kody asked.
After I’d told Kelton my little secret months ago, I tossed it aside. I didn’t see a need to blast the news that I’d almost gotten Ruby pregnant to Kade or Kody. But every time I saw Chloe, who was now almost nine months pregnant, I thought of Ruby.
I glanced from left to right, looking for a yellow house among the variety of two-story colonial homes that dotted the street. “Don’t freak. Two weeks before we moved back to Ashford, Ruby told me she thought she was pregnant.” I counted to three.
Kody lowered the volume of the radio on my second count. On three, he said, “What the fuck! You’re just telling me this now.”
“Chill. I didn’t see a need to bring up the subject. But since you’re with me, you should know just in case she bolts out of her house and attacks me.” I braked at a stop sign. “And she wasn’t pregnant. It was a false alarm.”
“God, Kross. That’s good news. So why do I get the feeling you’re not happy? Did you want her to be pregnant?”
“Fuck no.” I wasn’t happy because I might come face-to-face with the woman I’d left hanging. A woman who’d called me several times sounding frantic, and whose calls I’d ignored. A woman who probably wanted my balls between a nutcracker.
Family was everything to me. I wanted my own one day, but at sixteen, no way. Even now at twenty years old, I was still too young to start a family. “But I was a dick. I didn’t return her repeated calls after we moved back home.” I gave my truck some gas.
“Come on, man. We were sixteen. How were you supposed to act? You were scared.”
Maybe I was scared, but I was also confused. Too much had changed—my sister Karen’s death, Mom moving into a mental health facility, moving from Texas to Massachusetts. Then no sooner had we gotten used to a new school in Ashford before we were plucked from it and forced into Greenridge Academy. Ruby had been my escape, and I’d used her. At least looking back on the situation, that was how I felt now.
“So, why the apology?”
“We were friends, and I let her down.” Truth be told, she’d said she loved me. My response to her had been, “No, you don’t. You think you do, but the feelings we shared won’t last.” It had been wrong of me to say that. I’d learned from Kelton recently that young love could stand the test of time.
“Did you love her?” Kody asked.
“I don’t know. I was so confused. All I could think about when she told me she loved me were Mom’s words to Kelton: ‘It’s infatuation. You don’t love Lizzie.’”
Kody chuckled. “But that didn’t stop Kelton now, did it?”
“Kelton proved all of us wrong.” His childhood sweetheart had shown up in Boston several months ago, and now Lizzie and Kelton were madly in love and living together. Not that I was here to confess my love to Ruby, although I was curious how I would react to seeing her again. She had always made me feel lightheaded in a good way.
Kody scratched his head. “I sense you’re not telling me everything. Do you think if you see her again, she might stir up old feelings?”
I pressed on the gas pedal. “What? No. But every time I see Chloe, I’m reminded of how much of a dick I was to Ruby. She kept calling me after we left the academy. The messages she left sounded like she needed my help. I should’ve at least responded to her, but the pregnancy scare and her telling me she loved me kind of freaked me out. I really just want to apologize.”
Her young adult series, Vampire SEALS, includes two books, On the Edge of Humanity, and On the Edge of Eternity, which have garnered high praise from readers. Dare to Kiss is the first book in her new adult series.
Alexander’s career has been colorful—a former navy veteran, high school math teacher and college professor, sales consultant, coach, and manager. She loves baseball, especially the Boston Red Sox. She enjoys playing golf, is moved by music and great stories, and will go out of her way to help people.
She currently works full time in Corporate America and writes any chance she gets.
She believes words are the key to opening the door to extraordinary places with amazing characters that tell a great story.
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